Your humble Blog Goliard wasn’t as pleased as some of his NRO friends by the first two debates. The scorecard chez Goliard showed them as:

1. Draw (which helped Obama).

2. Draw among viewers who didn’t realize how full of nonsense Biden was; moderate Palin win among those who did. (Either way, that helped Palin, and may or may not have helped McCain a little.)

Perhaps that confers a little extra credibility as I dissent a little in the opposite direction this time, with my non-garment-rending opinion on the third:

3. Slight Obama win among voters who respond more to tone; moderate McCain win among voters who respond more to content. And a ginormous loss for Tom Brokaw and the Commission on Presidential Debates.

I also think that the latter result will outshine the former as this debate is remembered, even in a few days’ time; and would be destined to even if McCain had done better than he did.

We knew all along that it would take a knockout blow for the debate to really move the race, and the overall stinkiness of the question selection and moderation only made that more certain.

But, while it may not have mattered much in the end, I should say that McCain was in many places as good as I’ve seen him (though, admittedly, that’s not the highest of bars to clear). And I, at least, felt less frustrated than after the first debate—McCain finally got round to hitting some of the notes that I had, from my couch, been clamoring for him to hit last time.

So, to sum up: the race is pretty much as it was yesterday morning. Our guy is behind, but still able to win this thing with enough hard, smart campaigning…and a little luck.

We fight on; we fight to win.